A NORTH Yorkshire sheep breeder has won a flock improvement award for the second year running.

Robin Johnson has won the 2009 Eblex (English Beef and Lamb Executive) Most Progressive Flock Award for the Bleu du Maine breed with his pedigree 100-ewe Winholme flock.

They live on his 108- hectare arable and grassland farm, alongside 130 dairy cows, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

The award, organised through the Sheep Better Returns Programme, goes to the performance-recorded flock within a breed which shows the most impressive improvement in genetic merit over a 12-month period.

Mr Johnson’s original flock was bred in the mid-Eighties and ran alongside 230 Bleu cross ewes. He began performance testing in 1996 and joined the Bleu du Maine Sire Reference Scheme in 1999.

That flock was lost in a foot-and-mouth cull in 2001 but was re-established in 2002. Half the new ewes were from performance-recorded flocks and the rest from a top show flock.

Mr Johnson said last year was the first since becoming re-established that he was able to breed only from the best ewes.

“Before then we were serving everything to build the numbers back up,” he said, “We now have control over our breeding strategy again, and this is allowing us to take significant steps forward genetically.”

He relies on performance data to manage the flock, and says it is impossible to judge a good sheep on looks alone.

At eight weeks, his lambs weigh 2.5kg more than the scheme average of ten years ago – a real commercial benefit to his customers.

“Breed type and correctness is the cement between the bricks – but production traits are the real building blocks, every generation adds another layer,” he said.

“When producing pedigree stock, the sheep have to be 100 per cent right, with the emphasis on performance traits over looks.”

When buying rams, Mr Johnson examines breed index figures and Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs), particularly eight-week weights and eye muscle. The three rams used in 2008 had eye muscle depths of 35mm, 36mm and 40mm.

The flock receives enquiries from commercial and pedigree producers, but winning the male champion and reserve breed champion at last year’s Masham Sheep Fair promoted the flock still further.

Sam Boon, Eblex sheep breeding specialist, said using rams with superior EBVs allows pedigree producers to advance their genetic base over a relatively short period of time.

He congratulated Mr Johnson’s “consistent and valuable work” with the Bleu du Maine breed.